Cross-Checking

One of my old co-workers, Beth, is seriously one of the most gifted teachers I have ever met!  She was my unofficial mentor for years, and I loved talking shop with her!  She's definitely one of those teachers that makes you go "Ooooooo.... Ahhhhhh"!  Well, last year, one of her Daily 5 posters caught my eye, and I fell in LOVE!  She took pictures of her students doing the cross-checking hand motions, glued them onto chart paper and wrote out the steps.  It was brilliant!  So, of course, I took the idea and gave it my own computer-generated spin.  I took pictures of four students sitting next to each other modeling each step of the cross-checking process, added them to my word-processing software, typed out the steps with cute fonts, and then hit print!  I plan on taking photos of a few kiddos in my new class when we get to that mini-lesson to make a new poster for this school-year.  Here's an example of what it looked like... minus my adorable kiddos' faces of course.  :) If you'd like to download a copy, you can snag one at HERE.  {Disclaimer: This resource is an unofficial adaptations of an idea from the Daily 5 by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser. This freebie is not endorsed by the 2 Sisters:  http://www.thedailycafe.com.  I have permission to share as a freebie with credit.}

I'd also like to give a shout out to Ms. Jasztal (who I used to blog with on her old domain... and who was a Scholastic Advisor), Nicole from First Grade Owls, Abby from Third Grade Bookworm, Courtney from Swimming into Second, Rachel from Views from Room 205, Mrs. McCumbee from Mrs. McCumbee's Class, MeiLing from Plug-n-Plan, and Mrs. McKown from Little Literacy Learners for recognizing my little 'ole blog in their Top Tens.  Make sure you pop over to their blogs and show them some love... they are wonderful teachers!  I honestly couldn't even begin to whittle down a Top Ten, so if you're interested in the blogs I follow, you can check out my Blog Roll or look at my Google profile to browse hundreds of teaching blogs.  :)  Happy Browsing!